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It was her grandson Oliver who sparked Peggy’s decision to return to education, when he asked her for help with a school project looking at what it was like to live through the Second World War.

She thought about how much her own life and education had been impacted by the war.

Born in England to Belgian parents in 1931, she was six when the family moved back to her parents’ home.

They returned to England as refugees in 1940, escaping on the last troop ship sailing out of St Malo in France before the harbour was blown up.

Being moved from country to country did not help her education, and she was schooled in different languages through those difficult years.

She finally left school at 15 years old.

Peggy with her husband John (Image: Jon Kent)

While John left the Army and got a job in Scotland managing a factory, Peggy set up a refuge for abused women.

The voluntary role sparked a lifelong interest in counselling.

She decided to return to education after the family relocated to Bristol, taking up a postgraduate certificate and diploma in counselling at Bristol University.

That was soon followed by a masters, and she started working as a counsellor before retiring recently.

Her dissertation for her doctorate, Old Wives Tales? Changing my Perception of the World’, hopes to acquaint the next generation with the history of the 20th Century from a human and family perspective, and also to mark the gradual changes in attitude to the education of women which have taken place.

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Laurinda Brown, a Reader in the Graduate School of Education who worked with Peggy on her thesis, said: “What I am always struck by is her indomitable spirit, forged in the nomadic historical movements of her family across Europe provoked by the world wars.

“There has never been any doubt in my mind that Peggy would finish this work of family history, with reflections on differences in how women were educated, even though it took eight years.

“She is an inspirational woman and it’s been a pleasure to work with her.”